When the Stars Align

Will Doubts my Penmanship

A blue Toyota Prius pulls up at rocket speed, tire squealing. Will is running at us, sword in hand. The man takes his aim off of Jase and points it at Will. Jase slams into the man as hard as he can, knocking his aim off. The bullet misses by a few feet. Will swings his sword in an arc motion, decapitating the man. Blood runs everywhere. I struggle free of his grasp and grab Jase's hand. We run towards the car as more policemen give chase, but they're too late. Will makes a hard turn and steps on the gas. He glances back in the rearview mirror.

"Does that guy have a pen in his eyeball?" he asks.

I nod.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I doubted your penmanship the other night when you threatened me with the same pen," he says.

I can't help the slightest of smirks. "That was the most horrible pun I've ever heard." My smirk quickly fades as I remember my mom. Dead. Just like Dad.

Once the Obscurités were out of sight, I said to Will, "I am so, so sorry. The only reason I called Avery was because I didn't want you to get into more trouble than you were already in."

"Don't apologize. When something like this happens, I want to be able to help you, no matter the consequences," he says shrugging it off. "But no matter what happens, I'm not letting you out of my sight again."

I glance at Jase in the backseat. He's staring out the window, no emotion whatsoever on his face. I can't imagine what that must have been like for him. He saw his mom die, a man be decapitated, and another man with a pen sticking out of his eye.

"Your brother, he's not fully human, is he?" Will whispered so that Jase couldn't hear him.

"What do you mean?" I whisper back. "He doesn't have a birthmark and he's never dyed his hair."

"But he can see me," he replied.

"So? He can see me too," I didn't see where he was going with this.

"That's different, you're both Étoile and Obscurité. There are endless possibilities as to what you can do, that's why the Chancellor doesn't like you. You scare him," he said. "I'm Étoile, your brother shouldn't be able to see me, yet he can. He's not Étoile, and he's not Obscurité, he's human, but he can see things that no one else can."

We pull up to the same building I was in before. It was like a huge hotel. I hadn't thought about it before, but it was right in the middle of the city.

"Can people not see this place?" I ask him.

He shakes his head.

"Where are we?" Jase asks from the backseat.

"Can you see that big building?" Will asks him.

"Of course I can see it, I want to know what it is," he replies.

Will turns off the car without responding and we all get out.

"Why do you have a Prius?" I ask him.

"It's Avery's," he grumbles.

Jase grabs my hand as we walk inside. As soon as we open the door, Avery, Josh, Brendan, and a man with strawberry blond hair are standing there, waiting for us. When Avery sees us, she bites her lip. Will mumbles something under his breath that I'm hoping Jase didn't hear.

"That's the Chancellor," Will whispers in my ear.

The Chancellor doesn't look very happy.

"Will, can I speak to you, please?" he asks through gritted teeth.

Will follows the Chancellor to a room down the hall and closes the door.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to know what they're saying," Brendan says walking towards the door.

Avery, Josh, Jase, and I follow him. I press my ear up against the door.

"I told you specific orders not to bring her in, and you went against that plus you brought in a pure-blood with her," the Chancellor said.

"What was I supposed to do? Leave her for the Obscurité? And her brother can't be pureblood, he can see us, Max," Will argued.

"You need to get it into your head, Will, that she is not pure Étoile. She's Obscurité too, and I wish you had left her with them," he said bitterly.

"She has Obscurité in her genes, but she's Étoile in all the ways that count," Will replied. "Just let her stay here, for a while at least."

The Chancellor slammed his hand on a wall or something. "I can't let that happen, Will!" he yelled angrily. "There's things that she can do that she doesn't even know, and besides, we have no reason to trust her."

"How can you trust her if you don't give her a chance?" Will raised his voice.

No one said anything for a few minutes.

"Just give her a chance," Will said quietly, breaking the silence. "Please."

The Chancellor sighed audibly in frustration.

"Fine, but I want somebody watching her at all times. And listen when I say this: following orders is not an option around here, Will. It's for the safety of all the Étoile, understood?"

"Yes," Will replied.

All of the sudden, the door opened, and all five us, me, Avery, Josh, Jase, and Brendan stumbled forward into a heap on the floor. Will smirked, but the Chancellor just pursed his lips.

"Welcome to Étoile," he said to Jase and I.